Fact Sheet: Calling All Gardeners

Jerry finds out what it takes to get a garden into the Open Gardens Australia calendar by talking to Queensland selector, Di McCrae

Presenter: Jerry Coleby-Williams, 19/07/2014

SERIES 25 Episode 18

Jerry discovers how gardens are selected for Open Gardens Australia

"Beginning in Victoria in 1987, the Open Gardens scheme was based on the National Garden Scheme in the UK," says Jerry. "The idea was to show gardens, bring gardeners together and raise money for charity - and it still is - but now, Open Gardens Australia has around 10,000 gardens on its books across all states and territories."

"I'm with Di McCrae, an active member of Open Gardens Australia," says Jerry, "and I'm rather envious of Di, because one of her responsibilities is to visit gardens all over Queensland and choose suitable ones for the scheme."

"There's always something to learn in a garden and our aim is to inspire everybody to take up the national pastime and make it their goal to be a great gardener," says Di. "It's the greatest fun you can have - going to talk to a garden owner, getting their inspirational stories, seeing what they have done - it's just a real privilege."

Jerry asks Di how she finds so many great gardens. "There are many, many ways we find gardens - word of mouth, people ring, speak to you in the street - 'Oh Di, I saw this fabulous garden' - but we also have a process called self-nomination. If you believe your garden looks terrific, please ring us and let us know."

There is no 'right' type of garden for the Open Gardens Australia program - they select all types from large to small, formal to informal and from highly-planned to those that just evolved.

"Sometimes you're just looking for something that's going to grab you, but the main thing I look for is when speaking to the garden owner I can see them telling their story in their garden. That's what makes a great garden, as far as I'm concerned," says Di.

However, it's not always easy to persuade someone to open their garden to the public. "It's like everybody thinks, 'Is my garden really, really, good enough?' Let us be the judge of that," says Di. "If we say to you 'your garden should open', we believe it's right for the organisation. Many people get jitters. The road to opening is not always smooth. A lot of people have lots of self-doubt, but at the end of the day, it's a great concept and everybody enjoys the experience."

Hopefully, this will encourage gardeners to open their plot again. "We like to open them a couple of times and then give them a break. Not because the garden's slipped in standard, but we can share that garden's story in a couple of years, come back and say, 'Look at the growth of that wonderful tree, look at how much everything has grown,' - people like to be able to compare."

Di can speak from personal experience about what it feels like to open your own garden. "Many, many emotions - dread, fear, but mainly excitement that people may want to come in and visit my garden. I was just so excited that so many hundreds of people came, being out in the garden, being able to talk to all these wonderful visitors - it was just a most amazing and rewarding feeling."

Jerry's shared the experience. "I remember when I opened my garden for the first time, how wonderful it was to have people like yourself, Di, smiling - calm and relaxed, welcoming people in for me," he says.

"I think this is where the volunteers are such a vital part of Open Gardens Australia," says Di. There are plenty of things for volunteers to do, from staffing the gates to selling raffle tickets. "I have the best fun sitting on peoples' gates, meeting everybody, then listening to the positive comments when they come out of the garden, seeing people writing in the visitor's books and saying, 'Wow, isn't that an amazing garden'."

The garden itself is often not the only draw. "It's great to add to an opening by what we call value adding," says Di. "We may have a plant stall, a sausage sizzle or the CWA doing some lovely morning teas. The more people we get involved in the community, the better it is that we, as garden owners, can share our passion and our joy for gardening and that has a flow-on effect with everyone."

"I think Di and all the wonderful volunteers at Open Gardens Australia are doing really valuable work for gardening," says Jerry, "and I'm going to be back here at Di's wonderful country garden soon."

Information contained in this fact sheet is a summary of material included in the program. If further information is required, please contact your local nursery or garden centre.

Copyright Restrictions: This fact sheet is for private and domestic information purposes only. It may not be copied, reproduced, sold or used for any other purpose without the express permission of the ABC.